Archive for April 11, 2011

Sunrise at 6:31 am, sunset at 9:15 pm for 14 hours and 44 minutes of daylight. We’re now gaining about 6 min 50 sec a day, and we’ve lost astronomical night–the sun is less than 18 degrees below the horizon at solar midnight. By the end of the month we’ll have lost nautical night as well–the sun will never dip more than 12 degrees below the horizon. The snow is melting internally, though the water is still mostly refreezing within the snow pack. Visually, it’s only settling–but the snow stake now shows only 16″ on the ground.

Northwest corner of roof

Icicles are beginning to form on the north corners of the roof.

Where snow has been plowed up and has dirt incorporated near the surface, it’s starting to look grimy. The paved roads are now pretty much ice free, except where snow melt runs over them in the daytime and then freezes at night. The highway department does a pretty good job of keeping the snow berms on main roads plowed back so they are below the level of the pavement, but minor roads and graveled roads are still a problem. Snow on the gravel road I live on has barely started to melt.

End of my driveway, snowing dirt coming to the surface as the piled snow melts.

Next week? Based on climate history, the average daily temperature should now be above freezing. The forecast is less hopeful–daily highs in the low 30’s (if that high) until the weekend, when we might get some highs near 40 and lows around 20. The snow should continue to settle and the dirty snow will become more prominent, but I don’t expect major runoff until it warms up. No snow in the forecast, and this time of year it would only delay melting.

Since I don’t ski, it’s good weather to do the final editing on Tourist Trap!